368 Applications of differential calculus (Chapter 14)
Opening problem
Michael rides up a hill and down the other side to his friend’s house. The dots on the graph show
Michael’s position at various timest.
The distance Michael has travelled at various times is given by the function
s(t)=1: 2 t^3 ¡ 30 t^2 + 285t metres for 06 t 619 minutes.
Things to think about:
a Can you find a function for Michael’sspeedat any timet?
b Michael’saccelerationis the rate at which his speed is
changing with respect to time. How can we interpret
s^00 (t)?
c Can you find Michael’s speed and acceleration at the time
t=15minutes?
d At what point do you think the hill was steepest? How
far had Michael travelled to this point?
In the previous chapter we saw how to differentiate many types of functions.
In this chapter we will use derivatives to find:
² tangents and normals to curves
² turning points which are local minima and maxima.
We will then look at applying these techniques to real world problems including:
² kinematics (motion problems of displacement, velocity, and acceleration)
² rates of change
² optimisation (maxima and minima).
DEMO
s( )m
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
O 5 10 15 t(min)
st( ) = 1 2 - 30 + 285. t 32 t t
t=0 t=5
t=10
t=15 t=17 t=19
Michael’s place friend’s house
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100 100 4037 Cambridge
Additional Mathematics
Y:\HAESE\CAM4037\CamAdd_14\368CamAdd_14.cdr Wednesday, 8 January 2014 10:10:35 AM BRIAN